


hear my heart speak (for it is not my wish to be hidden away any longer)

by sladeninstitute



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-02-28
Packaged: 2018-01-14 01:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1246867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sladeninstitute/pseuds/sladeninstitute
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Doctor Leonard McCoy is happy to keep his relationship with Professor Jim Kirk under wraps, but Jim is starting to take it the wrong way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hear my heart speak (for it is not my wish to be hidden away any longer)

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to the prompt: "high school teachers au where mr. kirk is the cool as hell english teacher and dr. mccoy is the (whatever science idk maybe human anatomy AP or something fancy like that) science teacher  
> and every once in a while Jim will write a romantic quote behind Leonard’s projection screen on the dry erase board. so when he puts the screen up he gets blushy cuz all the kids are laughing lmao"

“ _Hear my soul speak: the very instant that I saw you, my heart did fly to your service. JTK_ _”_

It was not the first time that Dr. Leonard McCoy had found a message scrawled on the dry-erase board behind his projection screen, but it  _was_  the first time he'd found such a message during class. The laughter of his thirty or so students could be heard from behind him, and he turned around, intending to give them a stern lecture.

“Dr. McCoy, you're blushing!” So pointed out Christine Chapel, sophomore wunderkind and generally McCoy's favourite student. Of course, with the heat radiating off his face, Leonard didn't need someone pointing it out for him. He knew he was blushing and no amount of wishing would make it go away.

“Hey, doc. Is JTK your girlfriend?”

The question only served to deepen McCoy's blush.

“No, JTK is not my girlfriend.”

“Does that mean that JTK is your booooyfriend?” McCoy used to hold onto the hope that college students would be more mature than high school students, but he'd abandoned that hope years ago. College students were nothing more than overgrown preschoolers in his eyes, but that hadn't stopped him from joining the staff of Riverside College in earnest.

“No.” McCoy was stern enough to shut down Christine's taunting in her tracks. Her face fell before curiosity replaced the embarrassment from being publicly shut down by her teacher.

“So who is JTK? Do you know them, sir?"

Leonard grumbled and turned back around to face the board. He had a damn good idea as to who the (not-so) mysterious JTK was. In fact, he'd be paying a visit to JTK after class.

"I've got a damn good idea as to who JTK is," he said over his shoulder, "Now, before we got off on our little distraction, we were talking about edematous dysphoric regurgitation. Chapel, come down here to the podium and give us your lecture on what to do when your patient is suffering from such a disease.”

The entire class groaned with discontent. Chapel's lectures were not only well informed and usually deserving of high marks, but they were long. Long enough to take up the rest of the class period.

 _Good_ , thought Leonard. _Maybe it'll keep them off my back about Jim for the rest of the class._

* * *

Leonard made his way to Professor Kirk's office after class. He always felt calm after stepping into the oak panelled room, where the built-in bookshelves were overflowing with old tomes, but today he just felt on edge. He wasn't sure how well Jim would take him asking to cease and desist with the cutesy messages. At one time they'd been enough to brighten Leonard's day, but lately they'd become a source of worry. He was always afraid that he'd pull up his screen during class and be subjected to some too-corny-to-bear expression of Jim's love. In short, he was afraid that he'd wind up with a situation on his hands like he'd dealt with not 90 minutes earlier.

Sitting down in the chair opposite his boyfriend, he couldn't help but sigh. He knew that the conversation would either go two ways. Jim would either get upset and hurt, or it would go over smoothly and there'd be nothing to worry about. Of course, knowing Jim, the course of the conversation would follow the former route.

“Listen, Jim.” Bones tried to approach the subject with poise and grace, not wanting to come across rude or hateful. That was his weak point. He had a bad time expressing anything without coming across as a gruff and sardonic asshole. Jim was one of the few people that usually didn't hold it against him. He could only hope that this would be one of those situations. Kirk was already smiling, that shit-eating grin enough to make Bones' heart soften just slightly.

“Did you get my message?” Jim batted his eyes innocently, knowing that Leonard knew exactly what message was being talked about.

“Damn right I got it, Jim. In front of the whole damn class, no less.”

“So the whole class knows that I love you now?” Jim looked exuberant.

“No, thankfully not.”

Jim looked hurt, and it wasn't the mock hurt that Jim usually displayed. This was real and Leonard automatically knew that he'd crossed a line that he hadn't meant to cross.

“Thankfully? What's that supposed to mean? Do you not want people to know that I love you?” 

"No, s'not what I meant, sweetheart. You know I want people to know that I love you. Just not sure I want my students to know that I'm dating their English professor."

"Why not?” Jim still looked hurt, a look was deepening with every moment that passed. “Am I not good enough for you? Is the great Doctor McCoy too good for a lowly English professor?”

“Jim, of course not. You know that's not it.”

“Then what is it? What's so terrible about people, your _students_ , knowing that we're in love?” Leonard didn't quite have an answer, at least not one that didn't sound dumb.

“I don't wanna get teased or asked inappropriate questions. You know how college students are.”

“Of course I know how they are. I have to teach them all day. I just figured that you'd get over it. So what if they know? So what if they tease you? You love me and I love you. That's all that matters. Right?”

Jim looked like he was going to cry if his boyfriend did anything else besides affirm what'd just been said. Leonard rolled the words around in his head, letting them sink in, letting scenarios play out in his mind. So what if his students knew? Would he really let them tease him? With just a few terse words and one of his patented glares, they'd shut down the subject immediately. There was no need to hide anything from his students. He returned his attention to Jim and smiled.

“You're right. S'all that matters. To hell with the kids. Let 'em try to tease me. If they ask who JTK is again, I'll tell 'em. You deserve that much.” He spoke with true conviction and it made Jim feel like he was melting right there on the spot.

“You mean that? You'll really let them know who I am?”

“If it'll keep you from bein' upset, you know I will.”

* * *

Leonard pulled his projection screen up, the dry erase board behind it obviously visible.

“ _One half of me is yours, the other half yours. Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, and so all yours. JTK”_

The class automatically burst out into whispers. Not a day had passed since they'd been exposed to the first message from JTK.

“Sir?” spoke up a voice from the back of the classroom.

“What is it, Rand?”

“Who's JTK?”

Leonard turned to look at the door, seeing that Professor Kirk was visible through the window. Leonard shook his head and chuckled under his breath. He should've known that Jim would show up for this, to make sure that his boyfriend stayed true to his word. The doctor gestured at Jim, telling him to come in. Jim was at his side within moments.

“JTK is my boyfriend. Professor James Tiberius Kirk. Are y'all happy now?”

There was a murmur of assent from the crowd, not to mention a low whistle from Chapel's direction.

“You scored yourself a good 'un, Doc.”

Leonard simply nodded, turning to kiss Jim on the cheek.

“I know I did.”

And with a hardly noticeable slap on the ass, the good doctor told Jim to “git on out of there, because there was a class to be taught.”

Jim happily complied, glad to know that his relationship was no longer something to be hidden away.


End file.
